Mulayam slams ‘sycophants’ in UP govt, asks CM to crack whip

Lucknow: Slamming ministers and officers for tarnishing the image of Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh by indulging in “sycophancy”, party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav today asked his son and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to be a strict administrator.

“Akhilesh, the government is not run by flexibility, but by (taking) tough stand,” the SP supremo said during a speech here on the occasion of the 103rd birth anniversary of Ram Manohar Lohia.

Yadav, who has in the past too made clear his unhappiness over the functioning of Akhilesh government, said, “Ministers are indulging in leisure and officers in sycophancy to get their work done. That is bringing a bad (name) to the government… it won’t be allowed.”

Describing police stations and tehsil offices as the biggest centres of corruption, he said that the CM should undertake a review and initiate stern action against the district magistrates and police chiefs wherever irregularities are detected.

Until and unless there is fear among the officers, the functioning of government will not be proper, he said.

Taking ministers and party leaders to task, Yadav said that those who had worked to ensure victory of SP in the polls had been relegated to the background while the ministers had come to occupy the dais.

“I know the situation (the government is in). The CM should conduct a review… and take stern action. It is the responsibility of the CM to implement the (party) manifesto,” the SP chief added.

Echoing the views of senior BJP leader LK Advani, Yadav said that if the CM failed to control the law and order situation, he would be tagged as an incapable administrator.

The former CM then alleged that as compared to UP, 10 times more crime was taking place in Delhi although that was not being discussed.

Attacking the Centre, Mulayam said “the government is one of cowards. The country’s borders are not secure”.